We cannot discuss games without mentioning japan
This country influenced our childhood
the music for Super Mario that doesn't play anywhere
without everyone around recognizing it
The family game and the 2 players we used to play before something..
called the internet comes to separate us in times like this
Tanks, Duck hunt
Pak Man, Donkey kong, The characters of street fighter
That've been imprented in our memory
the first time we feel
True horror in Resident evil, we play the rule of a spy in Metal Gear
and the rule of a footballer in Winning eleven
Lots of games, if I wanted to talk about
I would talk for days, heck
I can dedicate a whole program to talk about those games
Games that only have one thing in common, which is the country where they were designed
that made me wonder, how does it look like to live as a game designer in Japan!z
the trip from japan to Egypt is a little wierd
you're literally traveling to the future
You're traveling the opposite direction of earth movement
You Basically skip one day in only 12 hours
Once you're out of the airport you're bombarded with information
from papers on the walls, to signs on the floor
To screens telling you where to go and what to do
Once you wake up from the shock
and start to look at the people around you
you start to see the clear picture
Everything in Tokyo is designed like a game
Signs everywhere telling you how and where to walk
As if you're in a map for Resident evil, silent hill
Or metal gear, games that have all been designed in Japan
The train is like RPG levels
Ones you see in Dark Souls
Complicated system of five types of trains
The local, the rapid, the Rapid expres
the special express and the Limited access expres
A system that will take you from east Tokyo to the far west
in less than two hours
Given that you know the timing and the type of train
Which will require an application (I suggest japan travel)
The internal structure of the cityI
Is shocking in it's corridor like design
From the metro stations, to the giant malls
Streets, alleyways, restaurants
to the parlors and supermarkets
The whole thing looks like a level from the classic version of doom
and the design of the tin city in Dues ex mankind devided
Even the nature in the local parks, gave me an illusion
that I might meet an npc which will give me a quest
Or a monster that I can kill and loot it's weapons
Or this place that chillingly reminded me of Resident evil!
All the details around you all the time
it's either a delicate design or an inspiration for such thing
which explains why design in japan is such a natural thing, as if they were born with it!
and why we've seen designs like
the levels of dark souls...
This is Omar Wahid, from a place on the planet...
Well, we cannot call it earth, because I'm now on the planet
that is very different
the neighbor planet of Japan!
Like that move!
I'm now in Shibuya
Close to the Shibuya crossing
This place is full of lighting and stuff that's fighting (rhyme)
I'm enjoying the people and the place and food and everything
Japan is a great place
Very great
Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw
the commercial for classic Mario on the screen
that was located on the train, something I haven't seen anywhere else
which made the travel a key part
of my quest for knowladge
as an Egyptian I used the skills I was given
and I started being nosy around people, and try to find out what they were doing
People were looking in their books and phones
and I though it was just emails and science books or novels
I noticed a man in his 50s standing by me
moving his finger fast on the phone
and I found out he was playing something like candy crush,
but the speed at which he played it was insane
even for someone who's "an expert" in games like me
I widened the circle of my nosiness
and I started to spy on the books in people hands
and found out that the majority reads manga!
which is basically Japanese comic books
and I'm not talking about young people exclusively!
it looks to me like it's not just a niche of people that play games
like the case in Egypt
because in Egypt, we are
only the young play games unlike the public in Japan
which has games as a key part of it's culture
people I've met randomly, would start at me with admiration
when I said I worked on game design.
The word Nintendo has it's wight
and super Mario and final fantasy are like the names of pop stars in Egypt
let alone the respect I get from people
When they find out I work in the field of games
unlike the sarcastic demeaning look I get when I say that in Egypt or the arab world
Don't get me wrong, the culture of a great nation like Japan cannot be summed up in
just thier love for games and their understanding of it
because you see the same level of dedication in Everything
from the design of the city as I said in the beginning
to the smallest thing
Like how people act around you
but this isn't the scope of my research, but the real focus of my quest
is to focus on the game culture
as the culture in Japan is far more complicated
but the part i'm covering alone requires an entire series
to cover all the points I want covered
However, there's a main element that connects games with everything
Which is people
which brings the question, why are people like this!
How did they make the leap with their culture
far beyond the monkeys living outside!
I'm not qualified to know this,
as my knowledge of history
is very shallow, and my grasp is weak on the development of culture
However I noticed stuff
Maybe could be useful in understanding a small part of the design tech advancement
I heard a lot before I went to japan
that most people there are very helpful, and I didn't give it much thought at first
because I have seen helpful folks all over the world
even Europe (specifically England) which is not famous for the helpfulness
I couldn't Imagine, that if I asked for help
that people would leave everything at hand just to help me
I was in awe to find people leave their work to show me where to go!
many times I enter a supermarket
to find the cleric leave the shop
and take me to a different shop that sells the thing that I want
I once took the wrong train, one of the passengers left the train
and took me up to show me the proper platform
keeping in mind that he could've easily missed his train
just to help me!.. a complete foreign stranger!
if this is any indication, this means that
this culture gave up somehow on selfishness,
their life is dedicated to helping others!
that means that the culture in Japan
is to dedicate yourself to work!
which shows in the quality of everything they do
which as a result, shows in the quality of game design
it's only logical that this level of dedication
result in the quality we see in devices like the Nintendos
games like Monster hunter, Zelda, or Mario odyssey
No wonder that the system and devices creating these experiences
to be so ridiculously precise as found out
at the time of release
as I mentioned, being in Japan makes the picture become clearer
this culture is the home
for work of arts that are hard to execute like dark souls
and timeless classics
like the series of super mario
new experiences that captivated a lot of people like Metal Gear Solid
and pieces that created worlds full of magic
like Zelda, pokemon and Final Fantasy
This was my experience in Tokyo
I was on a quest for an answer to my question, How did people there achieve this!
what i said wasn't enough
not even new to some
even what I want to say requires a lot of work to share with you
But I will have to with this at least for now
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